AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 166, 10 April 1926, Page 7

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

THE SITE QUESTION MINISTERS VISIT LEVIN Levin, April 9. The Ministers of Lands and Agriculture, the Hons. A. D. McLeod and O. J. llawken, to-daj inspected the Central Development Farm, one of the sites suggested tor the Agricultural College. A deputation representing the Levin Borough Council, Farmers’ Union, and other local bodies stressed the suitability of the site in that it provided easy access by ti'.e Main Trunk Line and comprised land of all classes suitable for dairying, fattening and cereal growing, while good (lax swamp and sandhill country was adjacent. It was pointed that the Government owned 803 acres of land with many buildings which would enable the university to be established without spending a large sum for the land and buildings. Replying, the Hon. O. J. Hawken as-* eured ’he deputation that no decision had yet been made regarding the site and it would be chosen only with regard to its suitability for the purpose. He stressed the point that something would have to bo done for the instruction of the men already on the land. The Hon. A. t>. McLeod said that New Zealand was at least twenty years behind other countries in agricultural development, the reason for which retardation had been the existence of 99 per cent, of parochialism. Therefore he welcomed the rapprochement between Wellington and Auckland as to the location of the Agricultural University. He would express no opinion as to where the actual site was going to be.